1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a workflow generating system, and a workflow generating method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patterned processing has been performed in a semiautomatic manner by apparatuses that execute workflows, in which a plurality of steps each indicating a process are connected with connecting lines, produced using application software. For example, in a field of large volume printing called production printing, the workflow is used for processing document data received from customers, for setting of any print setting, and for performing printing using any printer. In this case, the processing from receiving of document data to completion of printing can be performed in a semiautomatic manner.
Known techniques for editing such a workflow are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-151893, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-116381, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-191840, for example. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-151893 discloses a technique in which executable service icons are displayed on a graphic user interface (GUI) using a service list transmitted from a service searching server and a user creates a workflow using the service icons. In addition, a flow can be made in which services logically cooperate with each other using cooperation processing patterns such as transition, branching, repetition, and stop.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-116381 discloses a technique in which, when a bypass unit composed of a branching unit branching an execution flow into two flows and a merging unit merging the branching flows is inserted in a flowchart, the branching unit and the merging unit are inserted as a pair. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H7-191840 discloses a technique in which, when a data flow is edited, a connecting terminal having a form corresponding to a type of data included in a program module is provided to a graphic symbol indicating the program module, suggesting to a user that the graphic symbols having the connecting terminals of the same form are connectable to each other.
Such conventional techniques, however, have a problem in that it is difficult for a user who edits a workflow to know whether another step is connectable to the step used for the editing of the workflow on a downstream side of the step. Particularly, when it is indispensable to connect a step on the downstream side but no step is connected, the execution of processing in the workflow produced by being edited returns an error. As a result, such a mistake drastically reduces working efficiency.
Therefore, there is a need to allow a user to readily create a workflow.